Harvey Milk Day – May 22nd

Harvey Milk Day is celebrated in California on May 22nd. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger established that day in 2009 to honor the slain civil rights leader.

As the first openly gay elected official in California, Milk is a symbol of the efforts to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality. He served less than a year on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors before he was assassinated, along with Mayor George Moscone, in 1978.

Harvey Milk left behind a legacy of groundbreaking inspiration for which he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor, in 2009. San Diego was the first city in the United States to name a street after him.